BooK XI. PARADISE LOST. To ferve ungovern'd appetite: and took His image whom they ferv'd, a brutifh vice, Induffive mainly to the fin of Eve. Therefore fo abjed is their punifhment, 52o Disfiguring not God's likenefs, but their own : Or if His likenefs, by themfelves defac'd, While they pervert pure nature's healthful rules To loathfome ficknefs ; worthily, fince they God's Image did not reverence in themfelves. 525 I yield it kill, Paid Adam, and fubrniti But is there yet no other way, befides Thefe painful paffages, how we may come To death, and mix with our connatural dull ? There is, laid Michael, if thou well obferve 53© The rule of not too much ; by temperance taught In what thou eaeft and drinkit ; feeking from thence Due nourament, no gluttonous delight : Till many years over thy head return, So may'ft thou live ; till like ripe fruit thou drop 535 Into thy mother's lap; or be with cafe Gather'd, not harfhly pluck'd, for death mature. This is old age : but then, thou mull outlive Thyyouth, thy flrength, thy beauty; which will change To wither'd, weak, and gray : thy fenfes then 540 Obtufe, all mile of pleafure mull forego, To what thou haft ; and for the air of youth, (Hopeful, and chearful) in thy blood will reign A melancholy damp of cold, and dry, Toweigh the Ipirits down ; and tall confurne 545 The balm of life. To whom our anceflor. Henceforth I fly not death, nor would prolong Life much : bent rather, how I may be quit Faireft and eafieft of this cumbrous charge ; Which
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